My First Cheesepress

I have developed a desire to make dairy products at home. I've always made yogurt and labneh (yogurt cheese). Now I want to try hard cheese. Well, to do that you need a cheese press.

Expensive and dream dies before it gets to thrive? Nope.

Mine cost all of parts was about... Oh, wait... it was all free. I was about to say $5 dollars for the coffee can, but Mom and Dad gave me that coffee. Everything you see in the picture was a gift.

Here's how to construct your cheesepress for turning one (1) gallon of milk into hard cheese. First things first, you'll want to go buy coffee in a tin can. Drink it all up. Cut both ends of the can off/out and retain. The can is 4" in diameter and about 5-6" in height which is what is called for in pressing the curds from a gallon of milk. You now have the main body. Next, you keep the solid end (like pictured), the other end is probably going to be an open ring (recycle it). This is going to be what is called the "follower". The follower is the mechanism for evenly spreading the weight of the press (in this case the big ol' book) to the cheese curds. Between the press and follower you need something to transfer the weight down to the follower within the main body. That would best be done by a glass or cup that is smaller than 4" in diameter and greater than 5" in height. You will also need an old fashioned hanky or cheese cloth. My hanky is in use making labneh or it would be in the picture too.

Later, I shall endeavor to create a 6" diameter press for making 5 gallons of milk into cheese. The main issue is finding metal coffee cans that size. Everyone I've seen so far is cardboard. I may attempt to use one of those with some slight reinforcement with duct tape. But first I must be successful at the 1 gallon level.

BTW cheapest press I've seen is $30, and its not much more advanced than mine.